History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

WESTRAW 153
Annandale's letters to his wife during those years showed the pecuniaryimportance
it was for him to get a post under Government. The rights of the
barons in Scotland were not stopped till 1748, so that he made a good deal by-
dues and fines, and the baronial prisons are described as having been often
horrible dens. But he lost .£1000 in the Darien Colony, the project of a
Scotsman, much taken up by his countrymen.
Westraw was probably at this time the richer of the two. He was a minor
when his father died in 1648, but was returned his heir to Dryfhead in 1654,
the writ being signed at Newbie by the Earl of Hartfell, Douglas of Kelhead,
Murray, and others ; and he was infefted in Westerhall by the Marquis of
Douglas in 1653. At the time of his father's death his uncle, William
Johnstoun, was a fugitive in the Debateable Land. His mother, Isabel Scott, is
said to have influenced her younger son, Francis, to take the side of the
Covenanters, possibly so that whatever happened the family might keep the
estate (Chapter IV.).
The younger Westraw's wife was Margaret, daughter of John Banantyne
of Corhouse. The Earl of Annandale and his brother, John, were boarded
with her relatives when they went to school in Glasgow before 1674 ; and when,
a few years later, Westraw was the Earl's agent he received several letters
from John, who was in Paris, begging him to intercede with his brother to
send him money through Mr Graham of Annan and Mr Clerk of Edinburgh.
Then in fear of being " clapt up in prison," John drew a bill of £100 on
Westraw and " Bonintun." He signs his letter your affectionate cousin and
humble servant, John Johnston.
Westraw seems to have been kept by his maternal relatives from joining
Montrose; and in 1653 he was a Commissioner of Supply under Cromwell.
He was also a member of the first Parliament of James VII. He did not follow
his old chief, Clavers, when he raised an army to restore James VII., although
a Johnstoun supported Clavers in his arms when he was killed at Killiecrankie
in 1689—for Westraw was an officer in the Militia, embodied two months before
by William and Mary to resist a possible Irish invasion. The younger
Johnstoun of Lockerbie, William Johnstoun of Granton, and Andrew Johnstoun
of Newton are also in the list, but not Annandale. However, the last had made
up his mind in 1690 to take his seat in the first Parliament of William and
Mary, the other Johnstouns from Dumfriesshire being Westraw and his son
John, Corhead, Andrew Johnstoun (the younger of Lockerbie), and Granton.
They were called upon to levy a tax, in case of war, for £280,000 Scots.
The eldest son of Andrew of Lockerbie married Westraw's daughter, and
died before his father had made the intended provision for him. The widow's
mode of obtaining it is described in the Privy Council Records in 1690. For a
year or two past Mrs Margaret, supported by her father, Sir James Johnstoun
of Westerhall (as the Barony was now called), and with the aid of sundry
servants of her own and her father's, was accustomed to molest Andrew
Johnstoun and his friends and tenants, and to threaten them. They took
out a writ against the lady, but one day, in the spring, as Lockerbie's